Thinking V. Doing

There is a very distinctive difference between between thinking v. doing. Thinking for thinking's sake is really not terribly productive. Thinking in preparation for doing is productive; however, when coupled with making a stock transaction decision that productive decision may or may not result in a profitable transaction.

I've found myself doing more thinking than doing over these last couple of months. Given that I was ill for three weeks, it is probably best that I've not done too much doing, for there surely was no productive thinking.

Today I closed out early my DXD (double Dow -) for a profit and entered DDM (double Dow +). I closed DDM too early today, but it was a profit (but I could have doubled it), and I was happy with the combo transaction. I try to be careful about coulda, woulda, shoulda conversations. Those conversations can lead to inertia. Though, there is still much about this market that I do not like and that I think is above and beyond the general "wall of worry", I nevertheless, am trying to find some short term opportunities--either short or long--to "earn my keep".

Yesterday I listened to SCS's (Steelcase) conference call. I had previously shorted the stock and closed it out yesterday for a profit. There's a huge short position underneath the stock and a renewed buyback, so I didn't wish to continue to tie up the capital. Furniture orders are definitely slowing. After dithering and watching carefully MLHR's (Herman Miller) action today, I elected to buy some JUL 35 puts, as they were reporting AH today. The stock dropped from $34.97 to $32.80 in AH's. Hopefully this will hold through tomorrow.

Now what I describe is more trading v. investing activity, but in the end regardless of what one chooses to call it, one has to earn a return for one's capital and one's time. I'm not recommending this activity to any of you, but I'm merely sharing what I've been doing.